MacroPoint of Independence is sold for $107 million to a Canadian company

MacroPoint's technology allows customers to track their freight, even when they use third parties.

MacroPoint, an Independence company that uses software to help customers follow the shipment of their freight, has been acquired for more than $100 million by a public company based in Canada.

The buyer is Descartes Systems Group (TSX:DSG) (Nasdaq:DSGX) of Waterloo, Ontario. Descartes is a provider of on-demand, software-as-a-service products focused on streamlining logistics-intensive businesses.

In a news release, Descartes said it is paying $107 million for MacroPoint — $87 million in cash and $20 million in shares. The share consideration "is subject to a 12 month hold period, with 50% of the share consideration required to be held for at least 18 months," Descartes said in the release.

Descartes said MacroPoint, which was founded in 2011, currently has annualized revenues of about $12.5 million. MacroPoint this month made its debut on the Inc. 5000 list, ranking No. 567. Inc. says the company has seen sales growth of 793% over the past three years. MacroPoint has 35 employees.

Ken Wood, executive vice president of product management at Descartes, said in the release that MacroPoint "has established what we believe is the preeminent network of connected vehicles and location-based content in North America."

MacroPoint runs a connected network of what Descartes called "more than 2 million trucking assets and drivers." The Independence company "connects to trucks through integrations to on-board electronic logging devices (ELDs), transportation management systems, GPS-enabled smart phone applications and location-based mobile phone triangulation," Descartes said. It uses the data to help transportation brokers, logistics service providers and shippers track the locations of deliveries in trucks.

Late last year, MacroPoint received a private equity investment of $44 million from Susquehanna Growth Equity LLC. Amir Goldman, a managing director of Susquehanna, said in a statement on Wednesday, "We view Descartes as a natural fit for the MacroPoint network and business. We believe there are tremendous opportunities for the combined business, which is why we've become Descartes shareholders as part of this transaction."

MacroPoint last month named logistics industry veteran Lou Schneeberger as its first chief financial officer.

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